Solomon Macaroni and the Vampire Vacation by Ashleigh Barton illustrated by Sarah Davis

Bookseller blurb: It's holiday time for Solomon and his cousins. Uncle Dracula has planned a surprise visit to Paris. There will be fine food, fabulous fashion and fang-tastic art. When the cousins become captivated by a magical Mona Lisa, Solomon gets a bad feeling they're up to something. Again. Soon they have accidentally unleashed mayhem on the city of love and Uncle Dracula is too busy testing his renewed vampire skills to notice. Can Solomon and Lucy save the day before it's too late?

You might like to begin by reading my post about the first book from this series. While it is not essential to read the first book in order to understand this second, I think it would help you make more sense of the main characters especially Solomon, his cousin Lucy, and Uncle Dracula.

Solomon Macaroni and the Vampire Vacation will be released tomorrow (3rd October, 2023) - I received an advance copy just over a week ago - thanks UQP. When you read this book it might be good to have a map of Paris and perhaps grab some books about the Mona Lisa. Paris itself feels someone like an extra character in this book. As a way to introduce this book to your students you could discuss why the vampire children want to steal the Mona Lisa - I am sure no one will guess the real reason or the consequences of their heist. 

Here are some fiction and nonfiction books about the Mona Lisa:

I enjoyed the first book in this series about the Titanic. 

This new instalment was published early in 2023

Read more about this on the publisher page. Published in 2023.

I like the way Sarah Davis has illustrated these two covers and alliteration of the titles is fun. There are some very funny moments in this second book. Here are a few examples:

• Uncle Dracula (Dad) shops on EeeeBay. Oh and he keeps saying he slept like a dog when it should be, as Lucy tries to tell him, slept like a log.
• The cranky jetsetter taxi driver, Walter, is a wonderful character (but his taxi is not big enough for the whole family they should have booked a maxi-maxi taxi). I love his taxi rules.
• Leaving for Paris they accidentally leave the youngest child at home - poor Elvis - rather like a scene from the movie Home Alone. The group were halfway across Austria when dad remembered what/who was missing.
• On their previous holiday they stayed at the Fangi-la in the Maldives.
• The getaway car, after they steal the Mona Lisa, is a hot pink, glittery stretch limousine convertible. "Thyme's face ... lit up like it was Halloween. 'A limo!' she exclaimed. 'I've been asking Dad for a limo for centuries. He says they're for show-offs and hens' parties."
• Vincenzo, their own driver from Transylvania, has come to Paris to help but when the magic is unleashed Lucy explains bad things happened to his family in the past - something to do with magic beans and a scam.
• In the library Le Jardin des Livres you will discover a whole new meaning to the idea of speed reading plus the Brewey Decimal System invented by Tabith Brew. Now used in most libraries in the world!

Solomon Macroni and the Vampire Vacation is a long book with 287 pages of fairly small print but the mayhem of the plot means the story just races along to a very satisfying conclusion. 

Here the picture books by Ashleigh Barton:

Solomon Macaroni and the Cousin Catastrophe by Ashleigh Barton illustrated by Sarah Davis

Solomon is an only child. He is, perhaps, slightly eccentric. Solomon is, however, a smart boy. He likes things to be clean and tidy and he enjoys vegetarian cooking. His life is a happy one with his mum and dad until the day his vampire parents announce they are off on a world cruise - not for a couple of weeks but for one hundred years. You have probably guessed from the cover and realise Solomon is a vampire but he is certainly a very unconventional one. 

Solomon cannot stay home alone so he is sent to stay with his Uncle and cousins. He packs his perfectly ironed cape, his Power-Steam Iron 450 and his pack of jumbo sized Wipe-off-anything Wipes.  His uncle Dracula tries to be kind but the cousins are simply dreadful - well five of them are dreadful. Only cousin Lucy treats Solomon with kindness.

As the story opens Solomon is invited by his cousins to come to their beach. This beach is part of their enormous mansion in Transylvania. Solomon is not to keen on swimming but he is cajoled into joining his twin cousins. The three of them swim out into the 'ocean' when a huge shark appears. The shark attacks Maude and Claudette and there is blood everywhere. Oh no - I gasped when I realised that this was just one of many practical jokes by the unkind cousins. 

Oddly, though, there is a sadness in this family. Their precious mother has died and their father won't talk about her. 

Publisher blurb: You’ve never met a vampire like Solomon Macaroni before – he’s friendly, polite and makes a mean tofu Bolognese. Understandably, when his parents go on a one-hundred-year cruise without him, Solomon is not impressed. Especially because it means having to stay in creepy Transylvania with his six cousins, who are the rudest and naughtiest vampires in existence. (Well, apart from Lucy. He likes her.) Not even his uncle, Count Dracula, the oldest vampire in the world, can stop their pranks. Solomon wishes he could spend the next hundred years alone at his own house with his spider friend, Fred, instead. But when his cousins venture into the spooky Wildwood on a dangerous mission, Solomon – against his better judgement – agrees to help Lucy rescue them. At least, that's what he thinks he's doing. In the forest, Solomon must draw on all he knows – about old magic, wet wipes and the importance of a well-timed entrance – to save his catastrophic cousins and possibly the world.

This book will be published in July, 2022.  Thanks to Beachside Bookshop for my advance reader copy. This is a longer book (my copy had 280 pages of fairly small print) so it does need some reading stamina. Also thanks to University of Queensland Press for sending a review copy. 

I enjoyed:

• Meeting Solomon and his spider friend Fred
• The descriptions of the amazing mansion designed by Uncle Dracula
• The tone shift when Solomon and Lucy enter the Wildwood
• The kindness of Uncle Dracula and his wacky inventions

Young readers are sure to enjoy the practical jokes by the awful cousins and the tension in the final chapters. 

Here is Ashleigh Barton's web site where you can see her previous picture books. Companion read to pair with Solomon Macaroni and the cousin catastrophe:

Solomon reminded me of Arthur in One Night at Lottie House (for younger readers) and Charles in No place for Grubbs (Aussie Bites also for younger readers).

Rules for Vampires by Alex Foulkes illustrated by Sara Ogilvie

Lady Eleonore von Motteberg is a young vampire. She is better known as Leo. This story opens on the night of her one hundred and eleventh birthday. It is the night of the Waxing Moon. On this night Leo must complete her first Hunt, killing a human in order to drink fresh blood. Sorry I know this sounds horrible. There is a huge amount of pressure on Leo from her fearsome mother Sieglinde von Motteberg. Leo must complete her first Hunt tonight. A failed Hunt will not be tolerated. 

Leo has been preparing for this night. She does not want to disappoint her powerful mother. From the castle up on Mount Moth, Leo has made regular night visits to the town of Otto's End. Leo has decided the local orphanage will be the perfect place to complete her task. For travel, vampires use the GRIMWALK, but sadly Leo had the most terrible accident many years ago. She lost her leg on her first grimwalk and she now relies on a prosthetic one fashioned by her father. 

As the title suggests, there are important rules all Vampires must follow. Most are things you might expect involving garlic, silver, reflections and the consumption of blood.  There is a also a rule that a vampire cannot enter a house uninvited. 

On arrival at the orphanage, Leo finds a young girl sorting papers in a darkened room. Minna short for Wilhelmina, has her own plans. The owner of the orphanage is an evil and cruel man. Minna knows he about to sell of the orphans for a tidy profit. Leo hypnotises Minna in order to be invited into the room. Minna is not alone in this room. A scuffle ensues, a lamp is knocked over, there is a fire, Leo does not succeed in the Hunt and now she is responsible for two ghosts. Minna, now a ghost, will need to team up with Leo to thwart the Orphanmaster who in a short time will rise as a ghost with terrifying power and the girls must be complete this task in just seven days. The girls need to gather some special supplies, track down the Orphanmaster and prepare for the battle.

I picked up an advance reader copy of this book from Beachside Bookshop a couple of weeks ago. I am working my way through the books in my bag and this is one I put towards the end of the pile. Vampires are not really my thing. Today was a rainy day so I pick up Rules for Vampires and I read all 342 in almost one sitting. YES it is good! My copy says this book will be out in September but I just checked with a bookseller and the Australian release date is 17th November, 2021. If you are reading this post from the UK it has already been released into your shops. 

There are vampires in this book and ghosts and gruesome battle scenes but there are also light touches of humour and completely splendid descriptions. This book feels like you are watching a film unfold - the writing is so cinematic. Alex Foulkes creates an amazing world in her story. I also loved all the small details in this story which are left to your imagination. Leo is not really the daughter of Sieglinde and Dietmar, she was once a human child with human parents. Minna's own father lived in the same orphanage and he has a connection with the Orphanmaster's wife which goes part of the way to explain why the Orphanmaster is out for revenge. Most of all I need to know more about the butler/nanny called Marged who wears a full suit of knights armour and is devoted to Leo. Oh and the birthday party foods which feature so many things made from blood would surely make an excellent book talk extract to read to a group of students aged 10+.

In this video Alex talks about her book and she reads an extract. She also shares some of the art from this book which was not included in my Advance copy. 

As I mentioned there are wonderful descriptions in this book. I've marked up some excellent ones in my copy only to discover this book is not due to be published (even though my copy says September) but I can't resist letting you 'see' Leo.

"Leo was rake-thin and six feet tall. Her claw-tipped fingers reached past her knees, her skin was luminous grey. Her eyes were dark caverns that turned into catlike slits in lamplight ... Her smile was full of needles; her teeth, sharp as any blade."

And here is a description of her mum:

"In stepped an arresting figure, pale as marble, and equally as stony. She seemed to glide, graceful as she was gaunt. Her voluminous grey cape was adorned with furs. Her silvery hair was swept back from her pinched face, sloping-nosed and pointy eared, and her black, bottomless eyes ... "

Love Reading4Kids include some reviews by young readers on their page. The publisher likens this book to Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy and I agree. You can read a few pages here.

The writing is slick as blood, with smart turns of phrase that Lemony Snicket aficionados will adore, and cracking whip-smart dialogue that drives the story at bat-out-of-hell pace. Oh, and it’s divinely packed with a cast of top quality, quirky characters Love Reading4Kids

Here is the cover of the US edition due out in late November, 2021.

Companion reads:

A very Unusual Pursuit - City of Orphans

Barnaby Grimes - Curse of the Night Wolf

A most magical girl

My haunted house as told to Angie Sage

"I have a Secret Passage Kit, just like my Ghost kit.  I have always wanted to find a secret passage, and now I was sure that at last I had the key to one.

First I opened my Secret Passage Kit box and took out a torch a ball of string and some emergency supplies of cheese and onion crisps.  You need a torch because secret passages are always dark, and you need a ball of string so that you can find you way out again … You need emergency food supplies as you never know how long you are going to be in the secret passage, do you?"

This little extract should show you the tone of this first book from the series Araminta Spook. I have had this book on my reading pile for far too long.  A fellow Teacher-Librarian recommended it months ago as a popular series in her library.

Minty (Araminta) lives in a wonderful spooky house but she has not been able to find a ghost despite years of searching.  Her uncle Drac works at night and sleeps with bats and her aunt Tabby (Tabitha) is obsessed with cleaning and the boiler which constantly gives her trouble.  Aunt Tabby announces she is selling the house and moving somewhere small and clean. (Listen to the extract here.) Minty immediately sets up a plan to foil this scheme.  She easily drives away the real estate agent, she modifies the for sale sign, she drops spiders on a prospective purchaser and finally she enlists the help of a small ghost called Edmund and a suit of armour called Sir Horace.

I love the idea of a different bedroom for every day of the week. As this story opens Minty has been doing her ghost practice in her Thursday bedroom.

You might also enjoy One night at Lottie's house and the Piccolo and Annabelle series by Stephen Axelsen.  

Araminta has her own web site with games and more.  There are six books in this series which are perfect for fans of ghosts, haunted houses, mischief and fun!  It would be best to start with this first book in the series where you meet the main characters and learn some of their eccentricities.  

Many readers enjoy a series and these little books deliver all the right ingredients.  Easy to read, fast paced, delightful illustrations and a feisty, lovable main character.